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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39993739

The Church of England's investment success has pushed it into the top ranks of the world's best performing funds of its type last year.

The fund made a 17.1% on its 2016 investments, more than double the 8.2% it made in 2016, according to the Church Commissioners annual report.

[...] "While this is only around 15% of the Church's overall income - most funding comes from the extraordinary generosity of parishioners - we are delighted to be able to play our part."

The Church's ethical investment policy dictates that all investments should be compatible with Christian values and "recommends against investment" in companies which make more than 3% of their income from pornography, 10% from military products and services, or 25% from other industries such as gambling, alcohol and high interest rate lenders.

However, in 2013 it emerged that the Church had invested indirectly in payday loan firm Wonga. It was a particular embarrassment for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, who had pledged to try to put Wonga out of business by helping credit unions compete with it.

Thousands of 'Second Life' Bunnies Are Going to Starve to Death This Saturday

Any bunny who is Everlasting will continue to function, as he or she does now: without cost.
Any bunny who is not Everlasting will be unable to eat and will hibernate within 72 hours.

"Hibernate" is a very kind word for it, considering that these bunnies are unlikely to ever be revived. In essence, every mortal rabbit in Second Life is going to starve to death on Saturday morning.

Cloud Computing wins Preakness Stakes, dashing Always Dreaming's chances for Triple Crown

2017-05-16 15:11 UTC
Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau Introduces New Passenger Bill Of Rights

"We have all heard recent news reports of shoddy treatment of air passengers," Garneau said at a news conference. "Such incidents will not be tolerated in Canada. When Canadians buy an airline ticket, they expect the airline to keep its part of the deal."

2017-05-17 00:21 UTC
And here we go again..
Air Canada Abruptly Cancels Tickets, Costing N.L. Couple $6,000 (Canadian dollars?)

While Air Canada apologized to Earle for the "inconvenience,'' it said the suspension of their tickets was "a necessary fraud prevention technique to protect our passengers, credit card holders and Air Canada.''

IBM has over a few years built up a remote work program for its 380 000 employees. Now they are "quietly dismantling" this option, and has told its employees this week that they either need to work in the office or resign (alternative source). From the report: IBM is giving thousands of its remote workers in the U.S. a choice this week: Abandon your home workspaces and relocate to a regional office -- or leave the company. The 105-year-old technology giant is quietly dismantling its popular decades-old remote work program to bring employees back into offices, a move it says will improve collaboration and accelerate the pace of work. The changes comes as IBM copes with 20 consecutive quarters of falling revenue and rising shareholder ire over Chief Executive Ginni Rometty's pay package. The company won't say how many of its 380 000 employees are affected by the policy change, which so far has been rolled out to its Watson division, software development, digital marketing, and design -- divisions that employ tens of thousands of workers. The shift is particularly surprising since the Armonk, N.Y., company has been among the business world's staunchest boosters of remote work, both for itself and its customers. IBM markets software and services for what it calls "the anytime, anywhere workforce," and its researchers have published numerous studies on the merits of remote work.

This is despite that teams may not even be in the same town so it's effectively a telecommute at work anyway. And sometimes there's isn't even a desk assigned to the employee anyway. Instead employees get a locker room type closet with a trolley suitcase like thingy to stash all their junk that people used to leave on their desks. IBM employees are not allowed to leave any items on the desk, since it is not their desk. Every morning it's the "musical chairs" and everyone will try to grab a desk in a good location. What's a good location might however be different for a programmer needing concentration in silence . . . . and a salesperson next to you doing "Lines Of Calls" (LOC) instead of "Lines Of Code".. LOC like you . . . . well, that just ruined the day for you.

Managers at IBM know that this is a stupid idea, but the goal was to save money, which trumps everything. So they tried to sweeten the deal a bit by letting people work at home. Basically, they have outsourced their office space building services to their employees. But if you can't at least put a picture of your wife and kids on your desk there won't be any attachment to the "place of work". Neither will there be any attachment to the company either so turnover rates goes high.

Adding to the dismal situation is that these IBM e-places are as pleasant to visit as a trip to concentration camp with very loud, greying chipped concrete colored paint, rickety desks and chairs that make IKEA furniture look like luxury items.

Maybe IBM just have become a simple maintainer of large amounts of software they primarily had already or purchased from others and then branding it IBM. SPSS was bought but hasn't changed since they purchased it yet they still want thousands of dollars in licensing every year. At least their net promoter score (NPS) has gone to 27 compared to say Tesla at 97. Out of a range -100 to +100.

Some companies have started using the strategy to move office often and far enough to get rid of employees as the housing market punish them. Without having to pay out for firing them.

Already a year ago IBM have begun the usual India replacement, but the people getting that treatment didn't have any work at home policy. The key thing to understand about this company is that it's like a small city. They have more than 300 000 employees world wide. And just like cities there are good and bad parts of town. Working at Watson, that's upscale. Working for IBM Global Services as a NOC engineer, sysadmin or Java developer is the slum. Workers at IBM "true blue" probably let you have an easier time to opt for work at home in the past than a red-headed stepchild working at IBM Global Services. The clients in IBM Global Services are the table pounding types and mostly in financial industries. They'd just have to complain to the sales representative that they heard a dog in the background of a conference call and the work at home ends for everyone. Incidents like that has been observed to occur at IBM. But you can also bet your ass that the Ph.D researchers at Watson who have any work at home privileges are keeping them. The company was always scared shitless to upset that apple cart. People doing security scans at IBM, always had to give those guys a pass, no matter what. Bottom line is that it's where you are inside IBM that will ultimately matter.

TD;LR: IBM treats everybody who isn't a Ph.D like shit and won't let them work from home. The hauling back of employees to offices is just an excuse to get rid of employees. and yes their offices suck. As an investor, it might be advisable to reconsider being that in IBM as they seems to live on their name more than substance.

I deleted these Seth Rich submissions and threw them here with some updates.

takyon writes:

The Washington Post reports:

The family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich refuted Fox News reports that he had leaked work e-mails to WikiLeaks before he was fatally shot last year in the District.

The reports, which gained traction on social media, said an FBI forensics examination showed Rich transferred 44,053 DNC e-mails and 17,761 attachments to a now-deceased WikiLeaks director.

[...] Several federal and local law enforcement authorities also said Tuesday they were not aware that Rich sent any DNC information to WikiLeaks. "There is nothing that we can find that any of this is accurate," said Dustin Sternbeck, the chief spokesman for D.C police, which is leading the investigation into Rich's death.

[...] The allegations were reported by Fox News, including WTTG-TV, the District's Fox News affiliate. The reports cited a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who Fox said was hired by the family and had previously worked for D.C. police. He also has been an on-air contributor to the Fox-5 news station. Fox also cited an unnamed federal official who said Rich had transferred thousands of emails to a WikiLeaks director. Fox's source asserts those emails were transferred between January 2015 and May 2016.

Also at MarketWatch, Fox News, and Washingtonian. Original Fox 5 DC story which now includes details of Wheeler backtracking on his claims multiple times during the week:

On Wednesday, just before our newscast, Wheeler responded to our requests via a telephone conversation, where he now backtracks his position and Wheeler characterizes his on-the-record and on-camera statements as "miscommunication."

And here is a reddit thread about some new "evidence".

-----

butthurt writes:

—Fox News (archive link)

—BuzzFeed News

—CNN Money

—Haaretz

additional coverage:

• Media Matters for America
• Infowars
• Heavy
• Washington Times (earlier story from 1 May)
• Breitbart News
• Breitbart News
• Breitbart News
• Washington Times
• The Guardian
• Mic
• Newsweek
• The Independent
• Right Wing Watch
• 1011 News
• The Week

• previous story:
  WikiLeaks Announces $20k Bounty For Murderer(s) of DNC Staffer

-----

Original Submission #1   Original Submission #2

Shadow Brokers threaten to release even more NSA-sourced malware 2017-05-16

In June, Shadow Brokers will launching a monthly subscription model. With security exploits for:
  * Web browsers, router, handset exploits and tools
  * Select items from newer Ops Disks, including newer exploits for Windows 10
  * Compromised network data from more SWIFT providers and Central banks
  * Compromised network data from Russian, Chinese, Iranian, or North Korean nukes and missile programs

More details in June.

Looks like right now can be a good time to up those security measures.

This attack seems to be both serious and urgent and it has now reached the local news outlet but not made the headline at soylent, a technology focus site. So I present what has been submitted so far to get the news out.

Anyone foolish enough to run Microsoft's Windows operating system should now disconnect or patch it immediately. And in any case make an additional backup. Preferably using another system to ensure an uninterrupted backup.

Beware that hospitals, bank and telecommunications may be unavailable due to this ransomware virus as they are still recklessly relying on Microsoft software products.

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cafebabe at 2017-05-12 21:07:08
NSA-created cyber tool spawns global attacks - and victims include Russia

cafebabe [soylentnews.org] writes:

From Politico [politico.com] via Edward Snowden [twitter.com] via Vinay Gupta [twitter.com]:

Leaked alleged NSA hacking tools appear to be behind a massive cyberattack disrupting hospitals and companies across Europe, Asia and the U.S., with Russia among the hardest-hit countries.

The unique malware causing the attacks - which has spread to tens of thousands of companies in 99 countries, according to the cyber firm Avast - have forced some hospitals to stop admitting new patients with serious medical conditions and driven other companies to shut down their networks, leaving valuable files unavailable.

The source of the world-wide digital assault seems to be a version of an apparent NSA-created hacking tool that was dumped online in April by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. The tool, a type of ransomware, locks up a company’s networks and holds files and data hostage until a fee is paid. Researchers said the malware is exploiting a Microsoft software flaw.

Thoughts on a similar scenario were published by the Harvard Business Review two days before this incident [hbr.org].

More sources: here [dailymail.co.uk], here [dailymail.co.uk], here [dailymail.co.uk], here [dailymail.co.uk].

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c0lo at 2017-05-13 00:34:33
Almost 100 countries hit by ransomware attack (merge2 "Massive Ransomware Attack Hits NHS and ISPs")

c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

(while merging, maybe it worth sanitizing the comments in the prev story. Yeap, that one with "Woowaa! Woowaa! There's a cyber-attack!!! Change the lightbulb!!!!!" it's childish and there's no information into it)

Australian Brodcast Corporation reports [abc.net.au] - 2 hours ago

'Biggest ransomware outbreak in history' hits nearly 100 countries with data held for ransom

A global cyberattack has hit international shipper FedEx, disrupted Britain's health system and infected computers in nearly 100 countries.

The ransomware attack hit Britain's health service, forcing affected hospitals to close wards and emergency rooms with related attacks also reported in Spain, Portugal and Russia.
...
It [the atack] is believed to have exploited a vulnerability purportedly identified for use by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and later leaked to the internet.
...
Private security firms identified the ransomware as a new variant of "WannaCry"[pt] that had the ability to automatically spread across large networks by exploiting a known bug in Microsoft's Windows operating system.
...
Leading international shipper FedEx Corp said it was one of the companies whose system was infected with the malware that security firms said was delivered via spam emails.

"Like many other companies, FedEx is experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware," the company said in a statement.

Only a small number of US-headquartered organisations were infected because the hackers appear to have begun the campaign by targeting organisations in Europe, a research manager with security software maker Symantec said.

By the time they turned their attention to US organisations, spam filters had identified the new threat and flagged the ransomware-laden emails as malicious, Vikram Thakur said.

Massive, Fast-moving Cyberattack Hits 74 Countries [wltx.com] - 5 hours ago
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cafebabe at 2017-05-12 16:39:04
Massive Ransomware Attack Hits NHS and ISPs

cafebabe [soylentnews.org] writes:

From InfoSecurity [infosecurity-magazine.com], FastCompany [fastcompany.com] and elsewhere:

A major ransomware attack has been reported, with targets including banks and NHS Trusts all being hit.

According to Russia Today [rt.com], a number of NHS employees have been reported as being hit by the ransomware, while one user posted on Twitter [twitter.com] a screenshot of the ransomware which asks for "$300 worth of Bitcoin".

Woowaa! Woowaa! There's a cyber-attack!!! Change the lightbulb!!!!! [youtube.com]

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cafebabe at 2017-05-12 18:53:36
Massive Ransomware Attack Hits NHS and ISPs (Addendum)

cafebabe [soylentnews.org] writes:

Further sources: BBC [bbc.com] (and here [bbc.com]), Russia Today [rt.com], DailyFail [dailymail.co.uk], Telegraph [telegraph.co.uk], Guardian [theguardian.com].

Telefónica reportedly affected [twitter.com]. NHS failed to patch computers [twitter.com] which affected US hospitals in 2016. 16 divisions of the UK's NHS taken offline [twitter.com] with aid of NSA Fuzzbunch exploit [twitter.com]. The fun of a public blockchain is that ransom payments of £415,000 have been confirmed [rt.com]. Cancellation of heart surgery confirmed [bbc.com]. Doctors unable to check allergies or prescribe medication. Patient access to emergency treatment denied [twitter.com] in part due to hospital telephone exchange being offline [archive.org].

It also appears that one of the affected parties refused to answer a Freedom of Information request in Nov 2016 about cyber-security due to impact on crime detection [whatdotheyknow.com]. Similar parties provided responses to the same request [whatdotheyknow.com].

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cafebabe at 2017-05-13 03:59:23
NSA-created cyber tool spawns global attacks - and victims include Russia (Addendum)

cafebabe [soylentnews.org] writes:

One or more anti-virus companies may have been hacked prior to WannaCrypt infecting 75000 Microsoft Windows computers in 99 countries. First, anti-virus software like Avast fails to make HTTP connections [soylentnews.org]. Second, five million of ransomware emails are rapidly sent. Although many centralized email servers were able to stem the onslaught, many instances of anti-virus software had outdated virus definitions and were defenseless against the attack. Indeed, successful attacks were above 1%. Of these, more than 1% have already paid the ransom. Although various governments have rules (or laws) against paying ransom, it is possible that ransoms have been paid to regain access to some systems.

Also, file scrambling ransomware has similarities to REAMDE by Neal Stephenson [soylentnews.org]. Although the book is extremely badly written, its scenarios (offline and online) seem to come true with forceful regularity.

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Just testing tag codes..

[b|i|p|br|a|ol|ul|li|dl|dt|dd|em|strong|tt|blockquote|div|ecode|quote|sarc|sarcasm|user|spoiler|del]

Testing b
Testing i

Testing p

Testing br
Testing a

1. Testing ol

• Testing ul

Testing li

Testing dl

Testing dt

Testing dd

Testing em
Testing strong
Testing tt

Testing blockquote

Testing ecode

Testing quote

Testing sarc
Testing sarcasm
Testing user

Testing del

Men-only island set for UNESCO World Heritage status

A Japanese island where women are not allowed to set foot has been recommended for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Okinoshima in south-western Japan is deemed so sacred that only men are allowed to visit, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports. Even then, visitors are not allowed to bring back any souvenirs to the mainland, not even a blade of grass, the paper says. It has been recommended for World Heritage status by an advisory panel, with a final decision to be made at a UNESCO meeting in July.

The home to the Munakata Taisha Okitsumiya shrine, which honours a goddess of the sea, Okinoshima was the site of rituals for the safety of ships, and successful exchanges with the people of the Korean Peninsula and China between the fourth and ninth centuries, the Japan Times says.

wut about the kawaii goddess? Do she count?

New World Order Government cultural organization enforces gender norms on a Japanese island with a for real goddess on it, leading to a disastrous series of events. I'm sure somebody could write a 25 episode anime with that premise.